The draconian internet censorship bill, the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) being lobbied for by wealthy big media corporations (mostly fronted by the RIAA/MPAA, News Corporation and the like) and currently being debated in Congress is still losing support wherever one turns. A week ago, we reported that GoDaddy initially supported it, but soon changed its mind as it immediately began to haemorrhage customers. Now, it turns out that many video games companies are also coming out against it and with no pressure against them required.

The Entertainment Software Association (ESA) is the game industry's trade association and stands firmly behind the much-despised bill, which means that the gaming industry as a whole is deemed to support SOPA. However, while some members openly support it, others just won't say so publically and some of its members actively do not support it, having made official statements to this effect. Here are just three of them:

Epic Games (Unreal Tournament, Gears of War) said in a forum post: "Epic Games supports efforts that would stop overseas websites profiting from pirating our games, but we have to do that in a way that's compatible with freedom of speech and due process of law. Thus, we do not support the current version of SOPA."

Trion Games (Rift) said on its forum: "We definitely do not support SOPA. We'll be calling the ESA about this after the holiday weekend."

Mommy's Best (Shoot 1UP, Weapon of Choice) made a call on its blog for ESA members to ask the ESA to reconsider its support: "Hi, so I've put together a simple post pleading with developers and gamers to focus their internet super powers on getting the ESA to drop SOPA support. If They can get the Ocean Marketing guy fired forever, I'm sure They can blow this up as well. I feel like because the ESA is one step removed from direct consumerism, it's not getting the heat like it should be."

As one looks round the internet, one can see that there are many more organizations of all sizes expressing concern with SOPA or are outright against it such as Google, Facebook and Mozilla, makers of Firefox. Therefore, it looks like this dreadful piece of self-serving legislation might yet be stopped in its tracks, despite the huge amount of dollars that these huge media organizations are lobbying governments around the world with.

Also, before a particular game is purchased, one may want to first check if the developer supports SOPA with a quick Google and then decide if they still want to support such an outfit.

Finally, here is a handy article by c|net explaining the ways in which SOPA would affect the ordinary man in the street in practice, should it come to pass.Source: 1UP

qubit said:Epic Games (Unreal Tournament, Gears of War) said in a forum post: "Epic Games supports efforts that would stop overseas websites profiting from pirating our games, but we have to do that in a way that's compatible with freedom of speech and due process of law. Thus, we do not support the current version of SOPA."

It seems more like they're afraid to lose customers if they support SOPA.

qubit said:Also, before a particular game is purchased, one may want to first check if the developer supports SOPA with a quick Google and then decide if they still want to support such an outfit.

I'd go further and swap game with product and developer with company (ie boycott as many SOPA supporters as possible). This draconian thing will be the bane of all Internet users, regardless of being within the US or otherwise. :shadedshu

SOPA is one shape of the heart's many forms (accusing and pursuing "pirates") and ultimately, all publishers in it for money are going to support its heart no matter what form it takes. The only reason why they jumped ship is due to public relations. SOPA has a bad reputation and they don't want their names tied to it. If Congress managed to pass this without all the public backlash, every single one of these corporations would still be supporting it today.

More bills will be written effectively saying the same thing--the same tactics will have to be levied against them. History will repeat.

Google and Facebook opposes legislation like this because if it were to succeed, their own domain names could be targeted (Google is arguably the largest digital copyright violator on Earth due to caching websites and images). Mozilla has always been a proponent of open internet.